Should we give Valentine's day marketing more love...

2018 is an absolute record breaker for sales. But tell me, what holiday event can hit $1bn (£774m, €883m) in sales in 85 seconds, and then nearly $10bn in the first hour of a 24-hour spree? No, I’m not talking about Black Friday or even Amazon Prime Day. I’m referring to Single’s Day or Guanggun Jie as it is known in China.

“To put this in perspective, online sales in just one day in China is more than Brazil’s total projected e-commerce sales for all of 2016.” Forbes

Have you heard of Singles Day? If you haven’t you may be missing a trick. Think of it as an anti-Valentine's festival meets Black Friday. Singles Day is hosted by the Chinese e-commerce giant Aiibaba and is an opportunity for young Chinese to celebrate the fact that they are proud of being single and with 20 million more men than women under the age of 30, there are quite a few singles out there. The date, November 11th (11/11), is chosen because the number "1" resembles an individual that is alone.

In numbers

Alibaba’s number of mobile monthly active users is 666 million—double the entire U.S. population.

Alibaba’s affiliated payment system handled more than 1 billion transactions during the 24-hour sale.

Apple was the best selling mobile brand on the platform, ahead of Chinese brands Huawei and Xiaomi.

Chinese shoppers spent $30.8bn, up 27% in 24 hours.

How to drive sales in the run up to Valentine’s Day: Perhaps now is the time to ask what more can be done to turn February 14th, Valentine’s Day into an even bigger e-commerce event. Currently this romantic time of the year is reserved for jewellery, candy, nights out and cards but Alibaba has proved that there are more opportunities out there.

A few companies are cottoning on to this and have been getting creative with their campaigns regardless of whether their product is traditionally considered romantic.

KFCChicken Share Meal An original take on an interactive campaign saw KFC offering scratch-and-sniff Valentine’s Day cards that smell like fried chicken.

The cards were promoting KFC’s Chicken Share meal, which the brand says is “perfect for two.” The comical Valentine’s Day cards were available in participating restaurants across the US for those who purchased the Chicken Share deal. Although perhaps not to everyone's taste , it does make a change from chocolate.

Topshop Valentine’s Dilemmas It’s not just the gifts and the date that need to be considered for Valentine's, Topshop took it a step further by helping their customers pick out the date outfit too. To make the process even easier they provided a shoppable gallery and video.

Deadpool As the movie was launched around Valentine’s day they decided to have a bit of fun with the promos. They designed a cheeky campaign giving the impression that the film was a romance rather than an action movie.

Inspired yet? If you’re interested in upping your marketing game for Valentine's day, take a look at BeeLiked. We offer easy to set-up social media marketing campaigns to suit every business and platform including our new Price Drop. From Twitter contests, to holiday-themed online games, there’s an option for every campaign.Take a look now!